


Hyperventilation Dance

by blueswanson



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 15:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11877627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueswanson/pseuds/blueswanson
Summary: Inigo gets rejected by women again. This time, the tough skin he'd created around him shattered, and Inigo the Invincible was no more, revealing only hidden scars and fears.





	Hyperventilation Dance

After yet another rejection, it was time for Inigo to head back to camp. With the sharp sting of the slap he'd just received and a bright red hand printed on his cheek as the only memento of the milkmaid he'd just tried to seduce, the young man sighed deeply and looked off into the distance.

"Even I'm starting to wonder if all this flirting is doing me any good," he thought. "Maybe I should stop going to town and use that time to practice instead."  
Inigo shook his head, and tried to smile like he always did. It just wouldn't do to go back to camp and have everyone worry about him being all discouraged like that. After all, the Shepherds were used to the smug, smiley, flirty loverboy Inigo, and not a sad, discouraged, self conscious and rejection-fearing guy.  
And so he arrived at camp just in time for dinner, his usual - but fake - smile plastered on his face. He greeted everyone he saw, and nearly all the responses to his greetings were rolled eyes, which was actually a good sign: no one had noticed he was second guessing himself and feeling unwell, and they all just thought he was the same old Inigo. 

Inigo barely ate that night. He had said that he ate a lot of cake on a date - a lie that obviously none of the Shepherds believed -, but at least people didn't question him all that much. Thankfully enough, Olivia was far apart from him at the table, so at least he was sure his mother wouldn't worry about him that night. Lucina, though, was very close to him, and he was a little nervous she would find out he wasn't feeling okay. He tried acting as natural as he possibly could, but he couldn't help sighing once or twice. None of his friends seemed to notice though, as they were talking about some other thing Inigo didn't feel was important. Probably practice? The next battle? How Owain's way of talking makes it impossible for normal people to understand what he's saying? Inigo simply did not care at that moment. All he could think about was why he couldn't talk his way into a date, and why none of the girls he approached even gave him a chance. Was he boring? Was that it? Did he lack presence? Confidence? Was it the pickup lines? Maybe his smile was creepy?  


Inigo had now absolutely stopped smiling and was lost in his thoughts. He was trying to think of ways he could fix what was wrong with him, but even after thinking and thinking and thinking, he just couldn't find what it was. Slowly, one at a time, disgusting thoughts started to enter his mind. At first, they were only small - "you're tiring to be around" -, and they grew worse and worse. He eventually found himself thinking, "everyone's sick of you", "everyone hates you", "they just keep you around out of pity", and all sorts of self depraving comments. Soon, he heard voices talking to him, telling him "your dancing sucks", "you're no match to her", "you're disgusting", "just GO AWAY", "stop bothering me!", "you're a creep", "I HATE YOU", "JUST DISAPPEAR, JUST DIE AND BE EATEN BY WORMS AND-"

"Inigo, are you okay?!"  
A voice called him. Inigo couldn't tell who it was - everything was all mixed up in his head. All he could do was sit there, shaking, sobbing and breathing erratically, in, out, in in, out, in, out, in in, out, in, out, in, holding it, then in, in, and out again. Air was rushing to his brain, and he started feeling dizzy. Everything was blurry, and he could only hear echoing voices crying out his name. He fell from his chair, causing him to choke and hold his breath for a moment, and shake even more than before. He felt like he was drowning for a second, and his erratic breathing returned. Inigo's mind had gone completely blank, and everyone around him was screaming and arguing over what they should do. It was the first time Inigo had hyperventilated since he left the future, and it was also the first time any of his friends had seen him like this. No one knew what to do.  
Someone picked him up - Kjelle, perhaps? -, Inigo still breathing alarmingly fast, all dizzy, and with a headache slowly building up to a migraine in his head, and they took him away from all the arguing and the yelling. A bunch of people followed and sat down next to him when the person carrying him laid him down on a bed. Someone took his hand and held it firmly, as they said with a tint of fear in their voice:  
"Inigo, calm down. You're gonna be okay. Breathe slowly."

Tears pooled up in Inigo's eyes. He opened and closed his mouth in an attempt to say something, but all that escaped his throat were strangled sobs and incoherent syllables. He started to hiccup as he tried to slow his breath down, with tears running down his cheeks. It was a truly sad sight.  
Not knowing what else to do (Henry had confirmed it wasn't a curse), everyone agreed to give Inigo some space and only leave a few people to his side to try and calm him down. Among them were Lucina, Olivia and Owain - who was way more worried than anyone would have guessed he'd be -, as well as Libra. Olivia held Inigo's hand with tears in her eyes, almost inaudibly whispering "Please calm down, I'm here for you, everything's gonna be okay".

After what felt like an eternity, Inigo was able to calm down with Olivia, Lucina and Libra's help. Libra tried to ask him what sent him into a hyperventilation fit, but Inigo was so worn out that he couldn't even remember the reason clearly. The priest smiled gently at Inigo, and served him some tea. He gave the young man some health advice before leaving him with his mother and friends.  
Olivia was fiddling with her hands, avoiding eye contact with her son, trying her best to hold back her tears.  
"I... I thought you were going to die," she said, her voice trembling with emotion, "I was truly... truly scared."  
"I might as well have died," Inigo thought - but he shook that terrible thought right away. He looked at his mother, and tried to choose his words very carefully.  
"Well, I'm still alive, am I not?", he muttered as he smiled awkwardly, "It takes more than that to kill Inigo the Invincible!"  
Olivia smiled faintly and wiped the tears in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it almost immediately.  
"I'm just... I'm glad you're fine, dear," she whispered, and hugged her son warmly, "If I can do anything for you, please let me know... okay?"  
Inigo approved quietly, and Olivia kissed his forehead. She let go of her son, and told him to rest. She then left to help clean up the dishes.

"...If I may ask, Inigo... What put you in such a state...?"  
Lucina was the one to break the silence, after a few minutes of everyone avoiding eye contact and not saying a word. Owain stared at Inigo with the most concern he'd ever shown towards anyone (as far as Inigo could remember), still remaining silent.  
"It's... nothing important. I'm just overthinking things. A good night of sleep and I'll be back on track! So just... don't worry about me." Inigo fiddled with his hands to distract himself from the unpleasant discussion.  
"After what just happened, I certainly can't believe you when you say it's 'nothing'," Owain finally spoke, unusually grave (and out of character). "It wasn't a curse, or an illness, so it must have been something that's been seriously bothering you to drive your body to react like that."  
Lucina looked at Owain, then at Inigo, who had his eyes wide open from surprise - he'd never seen Owain say anything like this ever before. Owain was staring at Inigo, waiting for him to reply and explain himself.  
"C-... Come on. Don't... don't stare like that. I'm getting embarrassed here..." Inigo buried his head in his hands, intimidated from being stared at from both of his friends. "I'm just... overthinking. And reconsidering some things. That's all."  
Only silence welcomed Inigo's words, and he felt even more intimidated than before. He really didn't mean to be a nuisance to anyone, and he certainly didn't want to be the center of attention, especially if it was to collapse and worry everyone at camp.  
"... You guys must think I'm pathetic, huh." Inigo chuckled, bringing his knees close to him and wrapping his arms around them. "And you would be right to think so, too", he added, closing his eyes with a faint smile on his lips.  
"What? Why?" Owain walked closer and sat beside the bed. "For getting worked up over something? Or for your body expressing how unwell you actually are?"  
Lucina smiled kindly at Inigo and nodded.  
"There isn't anything to be ashamed about, Inigo. It happens to all of us, albeit in different ways - for you, it's this; for me, it's something else. We all have something painful on our mind, and the best way to feel better is to talk about it."

Inigo sighed. He WOULD talk about what it was that bothered him, but in his mind they'd just think it to be silly.  
"It's stupid. You don't have to worry about it. I was just... thinking about why I can't get dates. That's all."  
Only silence answered Inigo's words. Owain rubbed his eyes and sighed as well, before speaking tiredly, as if the conversation was exhausting.  
"Liar. It's gotta be deeper than just this to send you into this state."

Inigo tensed up. He really didn't want to say more than this. It was all humiliating enough already...  
"FINE. Whatever. I'll tell you. I just... rejection just scares me. A lot. And at first I thought getting rejected would help me get thick skin, but it still hurts. And- and sometimes I just think that if I can't get at least a few dates, that means I'm not alluring enough. And, well, that means I'm not worthy of dancing in front of anyone. And... that also means I'll never be as good as my mother no matter how hard I try. I just... think about this a lot. Just think of my flirting as part of my training- and I keep failing and falling on my face and- well, I just get worked up."

Inigo buried his face in his knees. He ended up spilling the beans after all. Owain raised an eyebrow, while Lucina furrowed hers.  
"Are you kidding? Seriously, are you kidding me right now? Your dancing is amazing. Literally anyone who's seen you dance would say the same as me. Right, Lucina?"  
Lucina nodded. She seemed to choose her words carefully, before speaking softly.  
"I know I can't tell you to not think about it, but you shouldn't be worrying about it nearly as much as you are right now. Everyone thinks your dancing is amazing, and that's your mother included. If you need reassurance, you need only to do a few moves and people will flock to you to watch, I guarantee it."

Inigo was blushing hard, his face still in his knees, extremely embarrassed and not knowing exactly what to say to this.  
"Thank you... the both of you. Really."

**Author's Note:**

> well, that was my first fanfic in years, and it's mediocre at best. still, it was fun to write.  
> if you find words or sentences that are weird, please point them out so i can fix the mistake and get better at writing in english!  
> also, i m really bad at titles. so this one is a direct reference to the song of the same name by nashimotoP!


End file.
